Portsmouth's manager, Tony Adams, backed David James last night even though his goalkeeper's howler helped the FA Cup winners on their way out of the competition. Pompey and Wolfsburg were deadlocked after a thrilling first half but James attempted to dribble round Zvjezdan Misimovic with 16 minutes remaining but succeeded only in presenting the ball to the Bosnian, who rolled it into the net for the winner.

With Braga winning at Heerenveen, even a draw would not have given Pompey a chance of progressing from Group E but James's calamitous error summed up their heart-breaking night after a pulsating game. After seeing James bounce back to save a late penalty from Misimovic Adams said: "He's a fantastic keeper. He saved a penalty, set up the first goal - he's a great keeper and I have every faith in him and love him to bits. He's been in the game a long time and there's nothing I can say to him."

Pompey were a goal down in the fourth minute when Christian Gentner showed neat skill and crossed low for Edin Dzeko to flick home. The visitors were level in the 11th minute after a fine counter-attack instigated by James' early throw to Armand Traoré following a corner.

The Frenchman surged down the left and clipped in a cross for Jermain Defoe to scuff into the net. And, amazingly, Adams' men then took the lead when Arnold Mvuemba's shot was deflected into the corner of the net from 20 yards.

The match was level again in the 23rd minute, however, when Gentner's low centre from the left evaded everybody and nestled into the net. The match turned on its head in the 74th minute, though, when James handed Wolfsburg the lead for the final time.

Five minutes later Sol Campbell brought down Dzeko for a penalty but James partially atoned with a parry from Misimovic's spot-kick.

Adams admitted that his side had been guilty of making too many errors to expect to win. "I'm disappointed. We made mistakes and they're a very good counter-attacking side. They wait and, if you give the ball away, they pounce," he said. "I'm going to take the positives, at times we looked sharp and made chances. But we made too many mistakes to win ."

The first four goals were all scored within 23 minutes and the Pompey manager was left to rue their slack defending. "It was better in the second half. In the first we gave goals away by not defending crosses. We tidied up in the second half. Obviously I was in constant contact with the Braga result and, when they went 2-1 up, I tried to change things."

Wolfsburg's coach, Felix Magath, was similarly unhappy with his team's defensive display, despite seeing them march into the last 32 with Milan and Braga. "We played an interesting game here. In the first half we played very well going up front, however in defence we were not quite so concentrated.

"But of course I am pleased as we have now won our third game as well. The early goal wasn't actually that good for us, we became a bit too comfortable. But Edin Dzeko is in great form at the moment and he was superb today. With such a player up front you are going to score goals."